‘George Washington whiskey tastings’

    

Mount Vernon

Today and every Saturday afternoon in June and again in September, George Washington’s Mount Vernon is hosting tastings of whiskeys distilled on the site employing eighteenth century methods. Rally the lodge, charter a bus, and go! From the publicity:

Experience A Unique

Tasting Opportunity

In 1799, George Washington’s distillery produced nearly 11,000 gallons, making it one of the largest whiskey distilleries in America. Today, a faithfully reconstructed working distillery produces small batch spirits on-site. Enjoy a rare opportunity to taste Mount Vernon’s one-of-a-kind distilled spirits.

Tickets are available here.

What’s Included in Your Visit

Distillery & Gristmill Tour

Discover the history of George Washington’s whiskey from Mount Vernon’s Historic Trades team, and find out how they distill spirits today.

Your tour begins one hour before your tasting. For instance, if your tasting is for 2 p.m., your distillery tour will begin at 1 p.m. Please allow a few minutes for check-in.

Mount Vernon

Tastings of Three Distilled Spirits

Sample three distilled spirits, made using 18th-century distilling methods and techniques.

🥃 George Washington’s Rye Whiskey (unaged)

🥃 George Washington’s Straight Rye Whiskey® (aged 2-4 years)

🥃 George Washington Straight Rye Premium Whiskey® (aged a minimum of four years, currently up to eight years)

🥃 Bottled older ryes, aged 6-7 years, also will be available.

Virginia ABC Law dictates that tasting pours cannot exceed a total of 3 oz. in a 24-hour period.

The tasting takes place outdoors, as Virginia Law prevents us from holding tasting events in the same building where our whiskey is stored.

Commemorative Glencairn Glass

You will take home a commemorative shot glass to remember your experience.

Admission to Mount Vernon

Ticket holders also receive general admission to Mount Vernon on the day of their tasting (a $30 value), which is located 2.7 miles from the Distillery & Gristmill. Please allow adequate time for travel. Show your tasting ticket at the Mount Vernon ticket window for admittance.

     

‘June 24: Third Joint T.O. Festive Board!’

    

It’s really starting to look like they’re serious about flying me out there.

St. John’s Day will be the occasion of the third annual Joint Traditional Observance Festive Board for all four T.O. lodges of Oklahoma. Yours truly will be the keynote speaker. From the publicity:

Brethren all,

The time has come for us to again raise a glass of cheer and celebrate Oklahoma Traditional Observance Masonry at the Third Annual Joint Oklahoma T.O. Lodge Festive Board, hosted this year by Vitruvian Lodge 557.

The event will be held on Wednesday, June 24 at the Oaks Country Club (6500 South 49th West Avenue) in Tulsa. Attitude Adjustment Hour will commence at 6 p.m. with a cash bar, and the Festive Board will start at 7. See the flier for more details.

This year, the host lodge, Vitruvian 557, has commissioned a custom brew, created by Bro. Brett Cable of BierKraft in McAlester, and fittingly named Vitruvian Ale. A commemorative imperial pint glass and first pour of Vitruvian Ale, an English-style special bitter, may be added as an option to your reservation by use of the QR Code for Pay Online. You then will be taken to the link for registration via Square.

Our speaker for the evening will be The Magpie Mason.

The deadline for registering is June 10, in order to give Oaks Country Club sufficient time to restock their larder for our descent upon their fine facility. The cost for your reservation at this not-to-be-missed event is $86, and the optional commemorative glass and first pour of Vitruvian Ale is an additional $20.

For online reservation and online payment, please use this QR code. This is for use only by those wishing to pay by credit/debit card. Those wishing to pay by check at the door must send an email and let me know that you wish to make a reservation by pay-at-door. I will send you an alternative QR Code for that purpose.

Please remember, the hard deadline for reservations either by payment online or at the door is June 10. Don’t put this off until it is too late to join us in the evening’s merriment, mirth, and enlightenment.

Since the brethren retain the T-Word, I will discuss the traditions behind what we, as Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, think, say, and do in our lodges. I still don’t have a title for this new presentation (I’m terrible at devising titles), but you’ll learn of the origins of many of the principles and practices that make Freemasonry distinct from, and above, other private societies. You’ll see why these customs have endured the centuries and, hopefully, you will return to lodge with even stronger determination.

I won’t ask my New York brethren to commute to Tulsa, but if you’re in the area and would appreciate a good meal with the seven toasts and my golden voice, use the QR code to sign up. And get the commemorative glass too!

     

‘Don’t miss the Tompkins dedication’

    

The brethren of Tompkins Lodge 471 again will venture into Manhattan next month for the traditional remembrance of their namesake at his final resting place. I recommend joining them because it’s an agreeable tribute to a consequential figure in both American and Masonic histories, and then everyone heads down to McSorley’s for refreshment. So, get to St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery on East 10th Street on Friday, June 19 at 6 p.m. to honor the memory of Daniel D. Tompkins.

He served as governor of New York from 1807 to 1817, when he resigned to become vice president of the United States to 1825. In Freemasonry, Tompkins was our Grand Secretary (an appointed position at the time) from 1801 to 1805, when Jacob Morton was Grand Master; and Tompkins himself served as Grand Master from 1820 to 1821. Along the way, he was the first Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite NMJ from 1813 to 1825, when he died on June 11, just days shy of his fifty-first birthday.

The titles are swell, but he should be remembered for his work as governor during the War of 1812 when he bankrupted himself (and died penniless) to provide for the defense of his state, and labored with his own hands in the construction of Fort Masonic at Brooklyn.

Click here for photos of a past Tompkins remembrance.

     

‘Summer School of happiness education’

    

National Archives

Grand Lodge wants to send us to summer school.

Joining the Happy Few, the Band of Brothers of Arizona Lodge of Research 1, the Grand Lodge of New York has entered the partnership with Arizona State University, which works with the National Constitution Center, in offering “What the Founders Meant by Happiness: A Journey Through Virtue and Character” online course. It is free of charge and it’s open now, so get started and work your way toward the certificate by clicking here.

According to ASU:

ASU

This course provides learners of all ages with a deeper understanding of what the Founders meant by happiness and why they considered it essential to both personal fulfillment and self-government.

Drawing on the lives and writings of the Founders and their successors, classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and Enlightenment thought, learners will explore how happiness was understood as the pursuit of virtue, character, and self-mastery rather than pleasure or comfort. Through close engagement with primary source texts, letters, speeches, and philosophical works, participants will examine how key figures of American history, such as Benjamin Franklin, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln grappled with the virtues—and vices—that shaped their private lives and public actions.

Learners also will develop the skills to think historically and philosophically, analyzing how ideas about virtue, reason, and moral responsibility informed the American experiment in self-government.

Each module includes primary source readings, interpretive essays, and guided reflection activities designed to connect historical ideas to contemporary questions about citizenship, character, and the common good. This course is entirely self-paced, allowing learners to progress on their own schedule.

Created in partnership with the National Constitution Center This course is based on The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, written by Jeffrey Rosen, CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center. It combines Arizona State University’s Principled Innovation framework with the National Constitution Center’s deep scholarly expertise and longstanding commitment to constitutional and civic education. Together, these perspectives equip learners of all ages with a richer understanding of American history and the enduring values necessary to sustain a constitutional democracy.

     

‘Louisiana lodge meets at last’

    

As reported here a year and a half ago, Louisiana Lodge of Research is reviving. In fact, it just hosted its Spring Banquet last night, described on social media as the lodge’s “first in-person meeting in many years.”

LLR

John D. Honey

I’ll describe the little of it I’ve read to give other research lodges an idea, because many research lodges meet Saturday mornings, which may not be optimal timing, especially for those with young families. (I’m not sure Saturday night is the best time either. Check with the wife well in advance!) But about a dozen of the brethren gathered in a private room at Jubans Restaurant and Bar in Baton Rouge for dinner and a presentation by Bro. John Honey titled “The Role of the Beehive in Masonic Symbolism.”

Honey. Beehive. Beehive. Honey.

And this was not the lodge communication. Their website says there had been a business meeting on April 12 via Zoom, so last night’s affair looks like steaks with Masonic conversation in a great looking restaurant. (i.e., no ritual, no regalia, no business. Perfect.)

Again, just throwing that out there as a possible alternative in the functionality of research lodges.

The brethren dedicated the occasion in honor of MW Chip Borne, who died last Thursday at age 82, posthumously electing him a Fellow of the lodge. Borne served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in 2006-07; and as Master of the research lodge from 2011 to 2023. I did not know him, but became acquainted long distance about a decade or so ago when he served as a vice president of the Masonic Society for a while. He certainly seems to have been true to this lodge, as his byline appears very frequently in its books of transactions, right up to last year’s.

Look for the lodge on Substack, where it publishes papers. Click here to join the lodge.

If Louisiana Lodge of Research is meeting and publishing, then it’s getting the job done. They’ll do it again this autumn. Best wishes to the brethren! Maybe I’ll be able to visit one day night.

     

‘ON SALE: 2026 John Skene Conference tickets’

    

Click to enlarge.

In trying to catch up reporting recent events, I am aware I still haven’t covered the 2025 John Skene Masonic Conference in New Jersey—and now it’s time already to promote this year’s event!

Click to enlarge.

All the details are in these graphics, so there isn’t much for me to add, except, for those who don’t know, John Skene was the first Freemason in the New World. He emigrated from Aberdeen, Scotland, where he’d been made a Mason in 1670, to the West Jersey colony in 1682—and actually became deputy governor after only a couple of years.

Personally, just as a supporter who knows how difficult it can be to secure grand lodge help for such efforts, I thank MW Omar Morris, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, for his patronage of the event.

Click here to register and purchase tickets.

    

‘The smallest lodge room I’ve ever seen’

    

Truly, if I already hadn’t known this was a research lodge meeting, I’d have assumed it was a beauty pageant—with seventeen Masons having to share one crown! April 11 at Mt. Jackson Lodge 103 in Virginia.

Still catching up on reporting recent events, and today it’ll be last month’s meeting(s) of Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 in Virginia. We sort of enjoyed two lodge communications for the price of one on April 11 in that we opened at Magnetic Lodge 184 in Stanley; we went out to lunch; and then resumed labor and closed at Mt. Jackson Lodge 103, about twenty miles away, in Mt. Jackson. Unorthodox, but we had the necessary dispensation.

We transacted the regular and constitutional business at hand, like electing four new members plus awarding Honorary Membership to Grand Master Szramoski. Those of us who noticed it were perplexed by the appearance of one blue ball inside the box amid the usual white and black ballots.

MAGNETIC EAST—The Master’s station in Magnetic Lodge 184 in Stanley.

But that wasn’t the only notable trait at Magnetic Lodge. The room itself is memorable. Well, the building is small, so you have to expect a little lodge room, but it isn’t until you enter that you can appreciate such an intimate sacred retreat. I guesstimated the square footage, but didn’t write it down, and I’ve since forgotten, but the room is about the size of the budget hotel room I booked.

I failed to capture in a photo the smallness of Magnetic Lodge’s meeting space, but that dining room table at right is squeezed into the West of the room! That’s our Junior Warden, Bro. Alan, in the foreground. The tables and chairs are removed for the meetings.

Best address in town!

While at labor, it was asked whence came Magnetic Lodge’s name but, unfortunately, no one knew, even Jeff and Kenny from the lodge. Afterward, I poked around online, but didn’t find anything conclusive. My best guess is the founders were connected to the mining industry. Magnetic 184 was chartered December 15, 1876 to meet in Marksville (Page County) on the Saturday night after the full moon each month. That area was renowned for mining iron and other minerals throughout the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the Virginia Department of Energy says magnetite, the most magnetic mineral on Earth, has been among the major sources of iron in the Commonwealth. Perhaps lends deeper meaning to divesting the candidate of all minerals and metals!

For lunch, we stopped at the Hawksbill Diner which, simultaneously, looks like nothing remarkable, while obviously being the place preferred by local citizens for their morning and midday meals, to wit:

They also serve RC Cola, which I haven’t had since I don’t know when, but have been seeking since that day. (Yes, I remember John’s of Bleecker Street has it on draught, but these were bottles!)

“Being half past high twelve,” as Worshipful Master Bill Hare phrased it, we settled into our “second meeting” at Mt. Jackson 103 for the work of the lodge. We were treated to a trilogy of Civil War tales, little pertaining to Freemasonry, unfortunately, but stories about local wartime events that, while colorful, don’t seem to have made the history books or the movies. The most detailed narration given concerned the fate of Confederate soldiers executed for horse-theft. It actually was on this date—May 22—in 1865 when Capt. George Summers, age 22, and Sgt. Isaac Newton Koontz, age 20, with others, committed the thefts. A month later, the two were executed without trial at New Market (site of my diminutive hotel accommodation), for the crime, despite already having been forgiven. Please read about this here.

We need another Northerner in the East of CWLR 1865 soon for equal time.

Another history was related by one of our Honorary Members, MW Bro. Kenneth S. Wyvill, Jr., Past Grand Master (2015-16) of the Grand Lodge of Maryland. He spoke of his grandfather, Dr. Wyvill, a physician in Maryland who also served as a courier for the Confederacy. 

On the not quite research side of things, we also heard about a legend dating to the Battle of Gettysburg when the Right Worshipful Grand Master of Pennsylvania arrived on the scene and allegedly opened a lodge where soldiers of both armies met on the level. I can’t recall the name of the brother who shared this account, but he said he’s still trying to find evidence of that lodge meeting and is encouraged by proof he found that Grand Master David C. Skerett, a doctor from Philly, in fact was at Gettysburg.

I love these lighting fixtures. I think this was an exterior light on the lodge’s previous building.

The current light. Somehow not the same.

Speaking of Gettysburg, Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will meet next on July 18 at Acacia Lodge 586 in Waynesboro—which was constituted on this date—May 22—in 1891. Our Civil War focus that weekend will be the Monterey Pass Battlefield Park and Museum, located only about twenty miles west of Gettysburg.

Everyone stops to photograph the reproduction Gulf station at 6023 Main Street in Mt. Jackson. Read about that here.

Let me again send best wishes to Bro. Bennett Hart, who is both our Secretary and our DDGM, as he recovers from an injury and couldn’t be with us last month. I look forward to shaking his hand soon.

After closing, we dispersed into the late afternoon, not having a group visit to any historic site planned. I headed back to my hotel, where nearby are both the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park and the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. Closing time for both was near, so I had to hustle. Bumped into Bro. Alan inside the museum. Some photos:

Stonewall Jackson greets you outside the museum.

And T.J. inside.

Self-portrait of Julian A. Scott, renowned artist...

…and heroic 16-year-old soldier. Click here.

The Bushong House.

This rustic pile
The simple tale will tell
It marks the spot
Where Woodsons Heroes fell.

The obligatory cannon shot.

     

‘Brent Morris visits The ALR!’

    

Most of the group present at The ALR March 31 for Brent Morris Night inside the Colonial Room of Masonic Hall.

Still scrambling to catch up on recent events, so let me recount The ALR’s two latest meetings.

First, March 31. We had big plans for the evening—initially. We aimed to present Fellowship diplomas to three heroes in the field of Masonic learning: Arturo de Hoyos, S. Brent Morris, and Piers A. Vaughan. You know them. No need to recapitulate their curricula vitae.

The American Lodge of Research has three tiers of membership. We all begin as Corresponding Members; after satisfying writing criteria, we may, possibly, one day, maybe, be elected to Active Membership; and those happy few, if they excel at research or other service to the cause of Masonic learning, might be considered for election, by the Actives, to become Fellows. We award that last one extremely seldomly. (There are other research lodges that bestow their honors with less diligence, but that’s their problem.)

Brent and Yves.

So, we learned early that Art wouldn’t be able to travel to New York City on that night. We learned late that Piers wouldn’t be able to attend also. But, frankly, when you have Brent Morris on the bill, you’ve got all you need. And that’s without the magic tricks. Actually, the lodge could have spent a minute preparing. In the division of ceremonial labor, when our Marshal escorted Brent to the East, where he was greeted by Worshipful Master Yves Etienne, it was Conor who introduced our guest to the lodge, and then I presented the diploma. That should have been vice versa, as Conor, himself a Fellow, designed and published the diploma, and would have spoken to what this distinction means. I, having known Brent many years, would have introduced him with an embarrassing wealth of biographical triumphs. But, it went the way it did and, for better or worse, that actually wasn’t my only snafu of the night. I know everyone’s memories of the occasion will be filled with what went right, which was Brent’s presentation to the lodge.

With Art and Piers sharing the billing, we had planned a “Stump the Band” kind of event, with everyone pitching questions to our new Fellows, as knowledgable and experienced as anyone can be, but I doubt there’d have been any stumping. With Brent solo, he instead told us about the labor that went into cracking the cipher that long concealed the Craft rituals of the Rectified Scottish Rite.

If you have read Committed to the Flames, Art’s and Brent’s book on this secret code, its author, and the rituals themselves, then you know all about it, but the brethren present were new to this subject. (And, if you know the book, you’ll recall The ALR factors into the story.)

Brent’s illustrious career has encompassed teaching mathematics, statistics, computer security, and cryptology at Duke, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington universities, as well as The National Cryptologic School. This will get the conspiracy goofballs worked up, but he also was a cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency for a quarter-century. So you can see why he’d want to decipher a vexing code that possibly only its creator ever knew.

I’ll try to summarize the story. Circa 1826, Robert Benjamin Folger, age 23, a physician and a new Mason at Fireman’s Lodge 368 (and later in I.R.A. 2) here in New York, filled a pocket-sized commonplace book with his own cipher of the Rectified Rite’s Craft rituals. This was not like anything you’ve seen in any Masonic ritual book, nor was it the Pigpen Cipher, or any other coded alphabet that might come to mind.

The code had been cracked twice in the twentieth century, first by W. Bro. Wil Baden in the 1950s, another New York Mason; and again by Mr. Donald H. Bennett in the ’80s. Proving it’s a small world, Bennett was inspired by the article “Fraternal Cryptography” Brent recently had published on the subject. Neither man was aware of Baden’s success.

Brent Morris sporting his UGLE regalia.

Baden cracked the code using what they call the “matched plain and cipher” technique made possible by the inclusion of some English text in Folger’s pages, which Baden compared and contrasted with symbols in the cipher. Bennett employed the “cipher text only” method involving “classical cryptanalytic techniques.” His findings are revealed in his paper “An Unsolved Puzzle Solved” in Cryptologia magazine.

Honestly, it’s a bit much for me to comprehend, but some basics were discovered: Folger’s code masked English words; it is read from left to right, top to bottom; the same encryption style is employed throughout, and twenty-six symbols stand for English characters; words are represented by clusters of symbols; and identical repeats of many words are seen. Get Committed to the Flames for the full story.

The book also contains the amazing (to me, at least) biographical details of Folger’s medical career and Masonic activities. Not your typical lodge sideliner!

The Q&A was fruitful and continued into the dinner hour. I was serving as Acting Secretary for the meeting, and it was my pleasure to bring to the lodge’s attention one petition for membership submitted by an aspiring brother from Indiana. Maybe you’ve heard of him: Chris Hodapp! I emailed my congratulations to Chris within minutes of the lodge closing. (I mean we voted him in!)

The next evening with The ALR came a month later when we hosted our annual table lodge on April 29. Worshipful Master Yves provided the ritual (in my twenty-nine years, I don’t think I’ve seen the same table lodge ritual twice), and we heartily toasted seven times in the company of Grand Master Steve Rubin, then in his final week in office. Always a great time.

At The ALR annual table lodge on April 29.

In lieu of an after dinner speaker, the Grand Master used his traditional time for remarks to have us all rise and share a little about ourselves, which is an important exercise, especially in a research lodge where practically everyone hails from a different Craft lodge.

As reported elsewhere on The Magpie Mason, we will gather again next Saturday—the 30th—at Ulster Lodge 193 in Saugerties. Then we’ll conclude the year on Tuesday, June 30 at Masonic Hall for our Annual Meeting, with elections and installation. Hope to see you around.

     

‘The most influential American Freemasons?’

    

“The official YouTube Channel of The Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, Mother Supreme Council of the World” is worth your time, if you’re not already acquainted. Host Maynard Edwards is among the most competent podcast hosts. Lord knows he gets enough practice.

The video published yesterday, already at nearly 4,000 views, spans twenty-one minutes to name the ten most influential Freemasons in American history.

It is not an official list from the Supreme Council. It is researched, but highly subjective. (That Pike ranks ahead of Mackey is ridiculous but, again, it’s highly subjective. And how was Jeremy Ladd Cross forgotten? Again, highly subjective.) It’s only natural that not one, but two Fellows of The ALR made the cut.

Click the link above to watch the show. Rationale for each name is explained, so don’t skip to the 19:16 mark to see the complete list.

Your comments (there, not here) are solicited, but Bro. Edwards says “It’s supposed to be fun. Keep it brotherly.” And several comments so far are pretty funny, as some viewers don’t get the “American” or “history” stipulations.

     

‘Meeting the Massachusetts Lodge of Research’

    

Massachusetts Lodge of Research hosted an enriching and enjoyable Zoom meeting this morning. My first experience with the brethren. I took a break from working to finish the long overdue MLMA newsletter to tune in, and am glad I did. RW Bro. Walter Hunt recounted his recent trip to England to research the activities of Henry Price who, as you know, was the Provincial Grand Master in Boston who established St. John’s Lodge and the Provincial Grand Lodge of New England in 1733. W. Frank Kautz asked and answered “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?”

“I solved the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts problem once and for all,” said Bro. Hunt, the Grand Historian of their Grand Lodge, in conclusion to his presentation. He certainly made a solid case leading up to that. (If you don’t know, there is a “Who Came First?” rivalry between those two grand lodges.)

RW Walter Hunt

The Grand Lodge recently dispatched him to London for three days of examining eighteenth century records archived in the United Grand Lodge of England’s Museum of Freemasonry. This was prompted, in part, by the Grand Master’s reception in London three years ago at the tercentenary celebration of Anderson’s Constitutions. Massachusetts Masons’ self-image is of the third eldest grand lodge (1733) in the world, after England (1717) and Ireland (1725), but before Scotland (1736). The Most Worshipful attending that commemoration expected to be seated accordingly, but instead was—well, I’m not sure he got the Nick Cave and the Bad Seats treatment, but he wasn’t exactly in the front row either.

Grand Historian Hunt saw rare documents pertaining to Freemasonry in 1700s Massachusetts (and elsewhere), but he also discovered the absence of other papers one would have hoped contained answers to important questions. For example, Masonic correspondence between Massachusetts and England during the 1730s is scant. It seems Henry Price did not send reports to London. (In my reading over the years, I’ve seen this is not uncommon, as provincial grand lodges enjoyed much independence. I think we today might think of them as districts, like we have within our grand lodges, but that wasn’t the reality.) More problematic is there isn’t a record in England of Henry Price being appointed a Provincial Grand Master! (I hope I understood Bro. Hunt on this.)

In Anderson’s Constitutions of 1738.

Nor is he listed in James Anderson’s New Book of Constitutions of 1738. That text, in its section “Deputations Sent Beyond the Sea,” lists several dozen provincial grand masters around the world. That named for New England is Robert Tomlinson, Esq. in 1736.

Regardless, Hunt explained, he’d traced Price’s travel to London, where he paid the three guinea fee for receiving a PGM deputation. And Price executed his duties, signing the papers that established lodges down what we call the East Coast and even into the Caribbean. Speaking of the Pennsylvanians, Price issued a deputation to Benjamin Franklin, making him PGM of that colony.

Meanwhile, as you probably know, the Grand Lodge of England made Daniel Coxe its Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 1730, making him the first PGM in British North America, but there’s no evidence Coxe did anything with that authority.

So, in that Massachusetts vs. Pennsylvania dispute, Bro. Hunt says if you’re talking about grand lodges, then Massachusetts is first, but if you’re counting only lodges, then Pennsylvania is premier. Sounds to me like a very Solomonic solution.

W. Frank Kautz

In his “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?” W. Bro. Frank Kautz gradually unfurled his answer to that question. He defines Freemasonry as a “system of morality, veiled in allegory” that imparts an “understanding by which man can transcend ordinary experience to be in harmony with the Great Architect of the Universe.” And the types of Masons he notes: the fun-seekers, the charitably inclined, those continuing a family tradition, and the esoteric Masons studying the meaning of Masonry.

The meaning is communicated in the “‘mysteries’ and ‘wise and serious truths’ hinted at in the lectures,” the symbolism of the working tools, the images placed about the lodge, and in the many books on Freemasonry.

What does esoteric mean? Bro. Kautz says:

Then we come to the Western Esoteric Tradition, a term Kautz attributes to MacGregor Mathers (I wasn’t aware of that), who created Golden Dawn in response to the rise of Eastern-themed movements that were growing in England and Europe.

The Western Esoteric Tradition, he continues, consists of Qabalah (he explained the spelling), Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, Paganism, Martinism, and Freemasonry.

The benefits of these are that they give us quests for gaining knowledge; they maintain wisdom from the past; and they help us develop critical thinking. Kautz also noted negative connotations of esotericism, such as suspicion of things that take place only behind closed doors, jealousy over possession of information by only the select, and even simple changes over time in the meanings of words.

In conclusion, W. Kautz defines esoteric Freemasonry:

As always, any errors or omissions discerned in the above are attributable to me, not the speakers.

With a minimum of lodge business (one new member was elected), the entire session took about ninety minutes. At The ALR, we’ve been talking for a long time about hosting online discussions, not only to augment our in person communications, which tend to be far apart, but also to reach our international membership. It’s proving hard to get that organized.

My worry about it concerns drawing too small an audience. I’d hate to invite someone, have him contort his schedule to help us reach members in, for example, Finland (seven hours ahead of New York), only to have about nine Masons present when we go live. There were, I think, twenty-one today, mostly lodge members and other Massachusetts Masons, but others, like me, from outside the Commonwealth. Not bad at all.

Massachusetts Lodge of Research will meet next on Saturday, August 8 at Tahattawan Lodge in Littleton for its Installation of Officers. That is where Senior Warden Stephen Rogg is at labor, so it will be there where he’ll be installed in the Solomonic Chair.

In the meantime, I completed the online form for joining this research lodge. You should too. Click here. I’ll let you know if they accept me.

     

‘Country Club to host Azim’s Ceremonial’

    

The Handsomest Grotto in the Realm™ will induct new Prophets next month at no less an auspicious venue than the birthplace of the Pickleback.

Azim Grotto, born in the Bronx in 1893, mostly meeting in Manhattan these days, but getting together in Brooklyn on June 7 to host its Spring Ceremonial at the Bushwick Country Club, is accepting petitions (and advance payment) now.

Potent Monarch Joe, he say:

Join us on Sunday, June 7, at the Bushwick Country Club for our 2026 Spring Ceremonial. Join your fellow Azimians as we bring in new Prophets to the Enchanted Realm! Do you know anyone interested in joining? Please get your candidates to fill out petitions ASAP, as they’ll also have to be issued an invoice to submit payment before the Ceremonial.

If you’re able to join us, kindly RSVP on the Facebook invite here.

And don’t forget Supreme Council’s 136th Annual Session at Erie, Pennsylvania June 21-27.